Rafid Jabboori of the BBC's Arabic Service: ''The worst day in 2011''
A wave of apparently co-ordinated bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, has killed at least 63 people and injured around 185, say officials.
The interior ministry told the BBC 14 blasts hit various locations, including al-Amil in the south and Halawi and Karrada closer to the centre.
The bombings are the worst in months - and follow the withdrawal of US troops.
They come amid fears of rising sectarian tensions as the unity government faces internal divisions.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attacks.
This was a whole rash of co-ordinated bomb attacks of the sort that we saw during the worst of the insurgency.
One would assume that Sunni-based insurgents are behind it.
The problem is the current extremely heated political climate. The vice president - Iraq's senior Sunni politician - is hiding out in Iraqi Kurdistan with a warrant on his head on charges of involvement in terrorism.
A lot of Shias, including the prime minister, will no doubt conclude that this is his revenge - that he or people close to him will have unleashed this as revenge against the Shias.
It is a very critical, very tense situation and these bombs will make it more so.
In pictures: Baghdad explosions
However, analysts say the level of co-ordination suggests a planning capability only available to al-Qaeda in Iraq, which is a mainly Sunni insurgent group.
The bombs exploded as many people were travelling to work during the morning rush-hour.
Four car-bombs and 10 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were detonated, officials told the BBC.
A security spokesman in Baghdad, Maj Gen Qassim Atta, said the attacks had not been aimed at security targets.
"They targeted children's schools, day workers and the anti-corruption agency," he told AFP news agency.
Raghad Khalid, a teacher at a kindergarten in Karrada, said "the children were scared and crying".
"Some parts of the car bomb are inside our building."
Smoke was seen rising over Karrada district, with ambulances rushing to the scene.
Another woman said her baby had been covered in glass.
"She is now scared in the next room. All countries are stable. Why don't we have security and stability?" said Um Hanin.
One Baghdad resident, Abu Ali, expressed anger at Iraq's leaders.
"These blasts occurred because of conflicts among politicians," he said.
"We call upon all politicians to resolve their problems and leave people to live in security."Sectarian tension
Iraq's year-old power-sharing government is in turmoil after an arrest warrant was issued for Sunni Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi on terror charges.
The entire al-Iraqiyya group, the main Sunni bloc in parliament, is boycotting the assembly in protest. It accuses Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shia, of monopolising power.
The interior ministry told the BBC 14 blasts hit various locations, including al-Amil in the south and Halawi and Karrada closer to the centre.
The bombings are the worst in months - and follow the withdrawal of US troops.
They come amid fears of rising sectarian tensions as the unity government faces internal divisions.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attacks.
This was a whole rash of co-ordinated bomb attacks of the sort that we saw during the worst of the insurgency.
One would assume that Sunni-based insurgents are behind it.
The problem is the current extremely heated political climate. The vice president - Iraq's senior Sunni politician - is hiding out in Iraqi Kurdistan with a warrant on his head on charges of involvement in terrorism.
A lot of Shias, including the prime minister, will no doubt conclude that this is his revenge - that he or people close to him will have unleashed this as revenge against the Shias.
It is a very critical, very tense situation and these bombs will make it more so.
In pictures: Baghdad explosions
However, analysts say the level of co-ordination suggests a planning capability only available to al-Qaeda in Iraq, which is a mainly Sunni insurgent group.
The bombs exploded as many people were travelling to work during the morning rush-hour.
Four car-bombs and 10 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were detonated, officials told the BBC.
A security spokesman in Baghdad, Maj Gen Qassim Atta, said the attacks had not been aimed at security targets.
"They targeted children's schools, day workers and the anti-corruption agency," he told AFP news agency.
Raghad Khalid, a teacher at a kindergarten in Karrada, said "the children were scared and crying".
"Some parts of the car bomb are inside our building."
Smoke was seen rising over Karrada district, with ambulances rushing to the scene.
Another woman said her baby had been covered in glass.
"She is now scared in the next room. All countries are stable. Why don't we have security and stability?" said Um Hanin.
One Baghdad resident, Abu Ali, expressed anger at Iraq's leaders.
"These blasts occurred because of conflicts among politicians," he said.
"We call upon all politicians to resolve their problems and leave people to live in security."Sectarian tension
Iraq's year-old power-sharing government is in turmoil after an arrest warrant was issued for Sunni Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi on terror charges.
The entire al-Iraqiyya group, the main Sunni bloc in parliament, is boycotting the assembly in protest. It accuses Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shia, of monopolising power.
Mr Hashemi denies the charges. He is currently in Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, under the protection of the regional government, but Mr Maliki has demanded that they give him up.
The BBC's Jim Muir says most Shias will conclude that Iraq's disaffected Sunni leadership was behind the latest attacks.
There is a strong possibility, he says, that insurgents on the Sunni side were just waiting for the most tense moment to unleash attacks they had been planning.
The leader of one of Iraq's largest Sunni tribes, Ali Hatem Suleiman, told the BBC that Prime Minister Maliki was becoming like Iraq's former ruler, Saddam Hussein.
"Maliki will drive Iraq towards separation and will create a new dictatorship and take on Saddam's mantle."
"Unfortunately this was all agreed upon by America - to hand over Iraq to a new dictator, and so Iraq will implode again," he said.
The last American troops departed from Iraq on Sunday, nearly nine years after the war that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
President Barack Obama acknowledged that the situation was not perfect, but said the US forces were leaving behind "a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government elected by its people".
0 comments:
Post a Comment